The next generation
by Skinky
Summary: Based around the next generation and their struggles, adventures, and trials in magic and everyday life. Sort of focuses around Chris, but has plots and fates for all the characters. Reviews are loved!


"Chris, hurry up or you're going to be late!" Piper yelled up the stairs.

"Mom, I can't go back to that school," Chris argued as he ran down the stairs. "Bianca broke up with me his summer and everyone knows about it! Going to school now is suicide!" The teen followed his mother into the kitchen and sat on a stool.

"Well would you rather be a high school dropout and end up living on the street somewhere, fighting for food?" Piper asked, her irritation flaring. She gave her son the 'I mean business' look, and he gave it right back.

"Mom, you'd never kick me out," He reasoned. "And even if you did I could just orb to magic school and live there."

"Chris please stop being so difficult, I only want what's best for you. And who cares what a bunch of kids think anyway, you're better than them."

"Yeah brainiac, just think; you'll be at Harvard and they'll be working at Wendy's making minimum wage." Melinda said as she casually walked into the kitchen. With a smirk she snatched a piece of toast from her brother, getting an angry look from the older boy. A small grin grew on Piper's face to see her babies growing up so fast.

"Morning sweetie, ready for your big day?" She asked Melinda.

"Are you kidding?" The cheery girl replied. "It's my first day of high school! I'm pumped!"

"That's great hun," Piper cheered, embracing her daughter. "But your bus will be here any minute so you two scram."

Melinda squealed, Chris rolled his eyes, and both teens headed towards the door, grabbing their bags on the way. On the way out Chris whispered to himself, "Please let this be a normal day."

The bus ride to school was awkward to the point Chris thought he'd die. Almost everyone stared at him, and the worst part was that Melinda just sat there next to him, smiling like the world was made of sunshine. When they finally arrived at school he thought he might finally get some peace, having changed his classes at the last minute to avoid any contact with Bianca. But as he stepped off of the bus he couldn't help but get a bad feeling. He looked as he walked and he suddenly saw a shadow in the corner of his eye. He looked to the corner of the main building and looking straight at him was a shady looking man. He instantly grabbed Melinda by the arm.

"Melinda," he said, alarm in his voice. "Look over there." His little sister looked over and her reaction matched his.

"Demon." She stated, not a hint of doubt in her voice. "I'll call Mom or Wyatt."

"No!" Chris interjected. "Wyatt's just starting college, we can't call force him back on his first day. And Mom's been protecting us since we were kids. We can handle this."

"Chris, we've never vanquished a demon before. Mom, Dad, Wyatt or an aunt always vanquished them when they attacked us." Melinda argued.

"Don't worry Melinda, we're ready for this. We both have active powers, I can orb if things get bad, and if we have to, we'll call Wyatt. Plus we have Prue, Patti, and Penny if we need backup."

Melinda let out a loud laugh, nearly attracting the attention of a group of teenagers. "Are you serious? Asking Prue is okay, but no way are we asking Patti and Penny, they'll probably help the demon!"

"Ok, that's true," Chris agreed. "But let's just check it out anyway. Come on."

Both teens nervously walked toward the demon, who was now busy staring at another teenager. Using the opportunity, Chris waved his arm slightly and sent a piece of concrete at the demon. It hit quickly, but alerted the demon to their presence immediately. He turned and started walking towards the back of the building, and Chris and Melinda picked up their pace to catch him. But when they reached the corner they stopped in their tracks. Facing them were three demons, each holding a fireball.

"Uh, Chris?" Melinda started, fear evident as she grabbed her brother's arm, "I think we should orb now."

"Ya think?" Chris replied sarcastically, and the two orbed just in time to avoid a fireball.

"After them," one of the demons said.

"No!" another yelled. "We'll deal with them later. We have a job to do, and those kids aren't gonna corrupt themselves." He finished with a smile, and all three shimmered away.

Chris and Melinda instantly ran to cover as they orbed into the manor. They waited for the demons to show, but to their surprise nothing happened.

"Where are they?" Melinda asked, shaking slightly.

"I'm not sure," Chris responded, "Maybe they can't track us, or just won't come to the manor?"

Melinda's face showed nothing but uneasiness. "Should we go back to school?" She suggested.

"Probably. Just stay in a crowd and if you see them, call me."

"Okay." And with that, the two orbed back to school.

Penny and Patti Mitchell smiled as they walked down the hallway, knowing that just about everybody was staring at them. Everyone always noticed their fiery hair and puppy dog eyes, and they knew they could get whatever they wanted. As they walked they took in the stares, smiles not fading for a minute. Only when they heard the homeroom bell did Patti lose her smile.

"Don't worry Patti," her twin comforted her. "Just think about all the boys in homeroom we can make fall in love with us."

Patti turned to her sister, the wicked grin returning. "Why Penny Mitchell, I do think that's the greatest idea you've ever had." They moved quickly into the classroom, taking seats in the back. Patti suddenly straightened up when she saw a familiar face walk into the room. "Prue, back her!" She yelled to her cousin.

Prudence Halliwell smiled when her cousin called to her. Of all her cousins she was closest to the twins, the three like sisters their whole lives. She took a seat next to Patti and sighed.

"Hey, have you guys seen Melinda or Chris yet?"

"No," Penny replied. "Who cares about those goodie-goodie's anyway? They just spoil our fun." As she finished she noticed a rather cute boy walk into the classroom. She turned to her sister, wicked smiles worse than ever.

"Leave it to me Penny," Patti started. "Come to me, I summon thee, trust me now you can't resist her. She got the look, she's got the charm, now fall in love with my twin sister." Prue looked on in horror as her cousin cast a spell on the poor boy, and worse was that he fell under their power. He sat next to Penny and started flirting immediately. Patti simply turned to Prue and giggled.

"See Prue, you should use your magic responsibly like us. Hell you could've just used your cupid powers to do it."

"Patti," Prue whined, "Are you forgetting personal gain? Aunt Paige is gonna kill you guys!" Patti shook her head and laughed, and Prue turned to face the front of the room. But out of the corner of her eye she saw someone standing in the door. The other students appeared to not notice it, and this just disturbed her. She watched him for a bit longer when she noticed he was staring at the guy Patti used the love spell on, and his eyes were glowing an eerie red. She looked back to the guy and saw his eyes glowing too. She nudged Patti immediately. "Patti, do you see that?"

"See what?" Patti replied, oblivious to the whole thing.

"A demon in the door, and I think he did something to the guy Penny's flirting with!"

Patti looked up and finally noticed him. By this time however, he'd noticed them and moved out into the hallway. Patti pulled Penny away from the boy with an alarmed look.

"Penny, we have to go, we have to... umm, pee." Penny looked at her sister with an annoyed look on her face.

"Patti, we used the bathroom before class." Suddenly the boy Penny was flirting with spoke up.

"Excuse me, we're talking here."

"Sorry bonehead," Patti retorted, "But my sister is needed elsewhere. Now let's go Patti. Prue, distraction please."

All girls started to get up, when the boy got angry.

"Hey, sit your ass back down, you little slut!" He ordered.

"Screw you!" Penny replied bitterly and slapped him across the face. He jumped from his chair, about to grab her, when suddenly the fire alarm went off. Patti grabbed Penny and the three girls bolted from the room.

As they ran down the hallway Prue caught Penny up on what exactly happened. They walked outside the school when Patti saw Chris and Melinda standing near them. She sighed and dragged the other two over to talk.

"Chris," She said seriously, "We got problems."

"Big bald demon?" Chris asked intuitively.

"Yup. He put some mojo on a guy Penny was flirting with and he went nuts."

"It's almost like he was corrupted," Prue filled in.

"Corrupted..." Chris trailed. Then it hit him. "Come over here, we gotta orb back to the manor. I think I know what we're up against." The teens quickly moved out of sight and orbed to the one place they knew they'd find answers.

At the manor, Chris flipped through the book of shadows until he found exactly the page he was looking for.

"Here they are, demons of corruption." Chris stated.

"Well what are they, and why are they at school?" Patti asked, annoyance flaring in her voice.

"Says here they like to corrupt young souls into doing evil so when they die they'll turn into demons. And it also says that their power kills anyone they infect in 24 hours, to make sure the soul goes to hell. Patti didn't you say that he infected a guy in your class?"

"Yeah," The younger witch responded. "And he almost attacked Penny but Prue made the fire alarm go off with a spell."

"Man, this sucks." Penny suddenly shouted. "The first guy I meet at school and he tries to kill me."

"You didn't meet him, Penny, he only noticed you from the spell." Prue stated.

"The what?" Chris and Melinda shouted together.

"It was only a little love spell!" Patti defended.

"Patti you know the rules," Chris lectured, "Aren't you worried about personal gain?... Actually you know what, we don't have time for this. The book says we have to throw the vanquishing potion and then say the spell. Melinda and I will make enough vials of potion, and you guys just stay outta trouble."

Patti rolled her eyes and watched as her cousins got to work. It didn't take long before they were each armed with a potion.

"Now, we need to lure them away from everyone if we're gonna vanquish them. Any ideas?" Chris asked.

"Well what if we use a spell to freeze all the innocents and then get them to chase us out back?" Prue suggested.

"Ok, do you have a spell in mind or do you need to make one?" Chris asked patiently.

"I have one!" Penny suddenly yelled.

"No!" Chris, Melinda, Prue, and Patti all yelled. None had forgotten when Penny tried a freezing spell the last thanksgiving and turned the manor into the arctic. They all spent three hours trying to dig out the living room.

"Don't worry Chris, I have a spell." Prue spoke up. "It's specific too, so it shouldn't freeze, only the innocents."

"Great. Now let's go kick some ass."

The five split up the moment they arrived at school. Chris signalled Prue, who began to chant.

"To help end evil, we need 10 minutes, we ask the ancients to freeze the innocent."

Chis looked forward and noticed that the spell had worked. All the cousins were fine, but everyone else in the school was frozen in time. "Good job Prue, now everyone spread out and look for the demons. There should be three of them. Twins go together, Melinda and Prue together, and I'll go alone. Now go!"

Melinda and Prue slowly walked down the empty hallway, glancing into classrooms to ensure everyone was frozen. Prue suddenly stopped, and grabbed Melinda's arm.

"Mel, stop, I think someone's around that corner."

Melinda said nothing as she was dragged into the wall, pressing tight to avoid detection. Prue poked her head out to spy, and found two of the three demons talking, walking slowly towards them.

"I told you we should have went after those kids that saw us! Now we have to waste time killing them now when we could be corrupting mortals!" The shorter demon argued.

"It's two against three, and they orbed off the second they saw our fireballs. And besides, they're kids. It's not like they know what they're doing anyway." The leader shot back. Prue looked to Melinda, fear showing in her eyes.

"Ok, here's what we do," She whispered. "I'll beam behind them and distract them, you throw your potion and we'll say the spell, okay?"

"Got it." Melinda replied with a nod. But just as Prue was about to beam she heard a familiar voice yelling.

"Hey ugly and uglier!" Penny yelled at the demons. Prue could have killed her cousin. She grabbed Melinda and the two jumped from their cover.

"Penny, what are you doing?" She yelled, "Throw the damn potions!" The four threw the potions, but the demons shot fireballs and managed to destroy them. Prue and Penny looked at each other from across the hallway, both now terrified. The shorter demon looked around in shock.

"Only two, huh?" He growled at the leader. He then started walking toward Prue and Melinda, fireball in hand while the leader went after the twins. Penny, by instinct, grabbed her twin and orbed to Prue and Melinda, and the four started running down a hallway.

With both demons hurling fireballs at them, the girls ran and ducked their way around a corner. Melinda shot Penny and Patti a cold look.

"If we survive this, you two are dead! CHRIS!" She yelled, and her older brother appeared in front of them.

"What? Did you vanquish the demons?" He asked concerned.

"No, the twins screwed everything up! Did you bring the extra potions I asked?"

"Of course." He replied calmly. "Well I haven't found the other one yet and we only have about a minute or so before the spell wears off, so let's get this done fast. Twins, orb their fireballs back at them, and the three of us will get them from behind." The twins nodded and ran from the corner, facing the demons head on. Both demons hurled fireballs but the twins sent them back easily, mildly wounding the demons. Chris grabbed Prue and Melinda and orbed behind them, potions ready.

"Now!" He yelled, and all three threw their potions. The leader turned and pulled his underling in front of him, taking the hit. Chris swore under his breath but couldn't waste the opportunity. He nudged Prue and they started chanting.

"Demon of fear, pain, and corruption, we vanquish you now in a fiery eruption!"

The smaller demon burst into flames as soon as the spell was out, soon turning to ash. The larger demon growled and starting running at Chris, but the twins were one step ahead of him. Patti orbed a potion from Chris' hand and hurled it at the demon. It hit the target, and she immediately said the spell. He turned in shock and readied a fireball, but before he could throw it he was reduced to ash on the floor.

"We did it!" Penny squealed in joy. And just in time, the school unfroze and the bell rang, flooding the hallway with students. And in the crowd, none of the five teens noticed the third demon watching them from down the hall. They simply laughed and went on with their day.

Patti silently cheered when the bell rang at the end of her last class. Finally, she cold go home and relax. She looked at her twin, smiled and both got up and exited the classroom. They met with their three cousin on the way out and Chris invited them over. They agreed, when Patti stopped in her tracks.

"You guys orb ahead, I have to pee and I'll meet you at the manor." The four nodded and she headed for the nearest bathroom, unaware that the demon was watching her.

As she finished her business in the bathroom, she took a minute to check herself out in the mirror.

"Patti Mitchell, you have the beauty of a goddess," She praised.

"Yeah, pity you'll be dead before you can use it." Said a sinister voice, and before she could turn the demon grabbed her and spun her, looking directly into her eyes. He then used his power of corruption on her, causing her eyes to glow red momentarily. Shortly after he let her go, and she relaxed. "Now go with your friends and destroy any trace of that potion. Then... kill them."

"Yes, sir." She said calmly, and orbed out of his sight. He smirked, then shimmered away himself.

As Chris, Penny, Prue, and Melinda orbed into the manor they were met by Piper.

"Oh hey kids, how was school?" The older witch asked.

"Boring as usual," Chris responded quickly.

"Not a thing happened," Melinda said immediately after.

"Just a dull, normal day." Followed Prue with a smile.

"We definitely didn't vanquish any demons," Penny stated. Chris, Melinda, and Prue all sighed in defeat. Piper raised an eyebrow.

"You did what?" She asked in a threatening manner.

"It's not our fault," Melinda defended, "We saw them hurting kids so we got their attention and vanquished them, no big deal, no harm done."

"And before you ask, we used a vanquishing potion and spell, and froze everyone at school so we wouldn't be exposed." Chris continued.

"That's not the point!" Piper almost yelled. "I told you all summer that you're not supposed to go hunting down demons, that's how you get killed! Chris what if something happened to you, or Melinda, or one of your cousins? Then what? You can't heal, remember?"

"Oh chill Aunt Piper," Patti said, emerging from upstairs. "They were low level demons, and we saved a bunch of innocents. You should be proud."

"You young lady are in big trouble when I get a hold of your mother. And when did you get here?" Piper asked angrily.

"Yeah," Chris joined in. "And why were you upstairs?"

"Oh I just thought I'd grab some potion and go after the last one, but there's none left. He must have gotten rid of it when we were in class." She said casually.

Piper looked at her skeptically. "You aren't going anywhere... and since when do you go after demons, you've never done it before."

"Well," Patti responded, "They ruined a perfectly good day of learning, so I figured I'd teach them a lesson about messing with Halliwells."

Chris wrinkled his brow. He'd never known Patti to be interested in learning, or to call herself a Halliwell. Something was definitely up. "Hey Patti," He started, "Can you go upstairs and grab the book for me? I wanna show Mom the demons."

"S-Sure." She hesitated, then she turned and headed back up the stairs. Chris turned to the other kids with a suspicious look.

"Does anyone else think she's acting funny?" He asked. Everyone nodded and started walking upstairs after her. They arrived in the attic only to find the book's shield active and Patti on the floor, an angry look in her eyes.

"I knew it," Chris said. "She's corrupted, Mom freeze her!"

Piper held our her arm to freeze her but nothing happened. "Chris I can't freeze her, she's still a good witch!"

"Damn," Chris muttered. "We'll have to knock her out."

"Oh no you won't," A voice said, and suddenly the demon appeared behind Patti and helped her up. "Now do be a dear Patti and kill them."

"With pleasure." She responded, and instantly started orbing objects at the group. Piper was hit first in the head, rendering her unconscious. Chris swore under his breath and orbed her downstairs before returning to join the fight. But before he could do anything a fireball came hurling at him and he ducked behind the sofa, finding shelter with his sister and cousins.

"What do we do?" Melinda asked fearfully. "We can't hurt Patti, but she won't stop orbing stuff at us!"

"I know that!" Chris snapped back. "Let me think... Prue, can you use your cupid powers to expand her family love and get rid of the corruption?"

"I can try, but I doubt it. What about you Penny, can't you get through to her?" Prue asked.

"Are you kidding?" Penny asked seriously. "She'll orb me into a volcano or something!"

Just as Chris was going to scold Penny he noticed that the sofa protecting them wasn't there anymore, and Patti and the demon were staring at them, grinning wickedly. The demon readied a fireball, but before he could throw it a voice stopped him.

"Hey," The voice yelled, and everyone looked to see Pheobe holding a potion. Before the demon or Patti could react she threw the potion and said the spell, turning the demon to ash. Patti's eyes flashed red and she collapsed on the floor. Chris jumped up and ran to his cousin. After making sure she was okay he looked to his aunt.

"How did you know we were in trouble?" He asked.

"Had a premonition about an hour ago, made a potion, and got here as fast as I could. Your lucky I remembered the potion or you'd all be dead now." She stated with a serious face. Now, orb her downstairs because the three of us wanna have a talk with you all." She turned and walked down the stairs as Chris orbed everyone downstairs.

"Chris and Melinda Halliwell," Piper started the second they orbed down. "You two are grounded for the rest of your lives! And you are damn lucky I don't bind your powers right now!"

"Penny and Patti Mitchell," Paige chimed in. "You two orb home right now, because your father wants to have a word with you."

"Prue, beam us home now sweetie, we're having our own little talk." Pheobe finished.

When everyone was gone Piper sighed heavily and walked into the kitchen. Not wanting to get yelled at more the teens made to walk upstairs, but when Piper cleared her throat the knew to follow. They sat at the counter in silence as their mother poured them orange juice and handed them. In fear of a hidden binding potion, neither touched the juice. They looked back to their mother, who looked like she could cry.

"Do you two realize the danger you put yourselves in?" She asked, her voice shaky.

"Mom, we just wanted to prove to you that we can handle ourselves." Chris argued calmly. "You, Dad, Aunt Pheobe, Aunt Paige, everyone's protected us since we were born. But we're not kids anymore. All of us, me, Mel, Penny, Patti, and Prue, we can handle fighting demons, but you need to give us a chance."

"Yeah Mom," Melinda added. "And we didn't tell you because we knew you'd worry and take over. We just wanna show you that you don't need to look out for us as much as you used to."

"But I do have to protect you!" Piper almost screamed. "You're my babies dammit! And you aren't grown up! Five of you couldn't even vanquish a low level demon!"

"But Mom," Chris fought back, "You guys can't keep vanquishing demons forever! You're not 25 anymore! You need us to take over!"

"Chris you're 17, you are not ready to take over for us!" Piper yelled. "Hell you can't even heal yet! How are you supposed to keep your sister and cousins safe?"

"But Mom," Melinda started, tears forming in her eyes, "Wyatt can heal us, Penny and Patti are learning how to heal, and we can call Aunt Paige if we need her! Just please give us a chance Mom, we wanna help!"

"I know that honey," Piper said, looking straight into her daughter's eyes. "But if something happened to either of you I'd never forgive myself. When I lost your Aunt Prue I barely survived, and if something happened to either of you I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"Then how about you test us?" Chris suggested. "You give us a situation with an innocent to save, completely under your control, at anytime you choose, and if we save them and vanquish the demon then you have to let us fight."

Piper looked at her son, a grin making its way across her face despite the tears running down her face. "God Chris, you remind me so much of myself it's scary. But if we do test you, it's gonna be the five of you, together, and it will not be easy, am I clear?"

Both teens grinned. "Really, you mean it?" Chris asked, excited.

"Well I'll have to talk to Pheobe and Paige and your father and Henry and Coop, but they should agree, especially your father. I swear he's just out to make me the bad parent." Piper finished with a laugh. "Now, you two go clean up the attic, and dinner will be ready in a hour."

Neither teen even thought of complaining, they simply smiled, hugged their mother, and ran upstairs to the mess of the attic.

**Author's Note:** So this is my first ever Charmed fic, I've been thinking about doing it for a while, and a few days ago I just started and let the ideas pour. Each chapter is going to be an episode. Anyway, reviews and opinions are much appeciated, and I wanna know what you guys think of the characters!

Skinky


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